Drabble Collection
by chocolatequeen
Summary: Triangle angst galore from all three vertices
1. One in Five

My name is Will Tippin, and I'm a heroin addict. Actually I'm not-Hey! Don't leave! I know you've heard all the excuses before, but trust me, you've never heard this one.  
  
Are you still with me? Good. To explain, I'll tell you how I became a heroin addict. The conventional way would be to shoot up, right? I'm pretty unconventional; I became an addict when my wisdom teeth were pulled. I know what you're thinking; "This loser must be stoned. No one gets addicted to heroin on a dental visit."  
  
But who said anything about a dentist? My teeth were pulled by some crazy Asian guy after I'd been kidnapped. He didn't even use anesthesia! Also, I never said I was addicted, I said I'm an addict. You see, the people who kidnapped me thought I knew something. They were trying to torture me. After I got home, I was told that the best way to avoid a repeat experience was to turn myself into someone who couldn't be trusted. I'd developed a new found appreciation for my teeth so I agreed. You know what the crazy thing is? It worked. After all, what's one addict, more or less? 


	2. Perfect

A/N: I forgot to add a disclaimer to the first of these. As always, none of this belongs to me. Also, each story is independent of the others. This one is obviously a happy S/V piece.  
  
Perfect  
  
"It's a girl," the masked and gowned doctor said as he placed the tiny pink bundle in my arms.  
  
I stared at her in awe, all the pain forgotten. Reaching out, I stroked her face with a trembling finger. "Look Vaughn, she has your eyes," I whispered.  
  
"And your cute mouth," he replied reverently.  
  
"Elizabeth Marie Vaughn. our daughter," I said, watching my husband gently run his finger down her arm and count her fingers and toes.  
  
"Ten of each," he confirmed.  
  
My hand joined his on her tummy, both our gazes focused on her face. "She's perfect," we breathed. 


	3. The Loneliest Number

Wind whispers through the trees; colored leaves flutter to the ground. A man stands before his friends, here to speak, but wordless. What can you say about a daughter, lost? Those around him are gathered in twos and threes and for the first time he realizes he is truly alone. 


	4. Half

Daughter missing, heart gone, soul lost. Nowhere and everywhere, restlessly wandering, relentlessly searching, never giving up.  
  
Beneath the open sky, yet still captive to invisible walls. Walls of pain, sorrow, anguish. Walls no one knows exist. Walls only one pair could breach.  
  
Now she is missing and I'm half gone. 


	5. Future Tense

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." And sadder, and more weary, and lonelier. Cervantes didn't mention those.  
  
With each passing day, my heart grows heavier. She's been missing for six months now, her 48 hours are long past. The trail is cold, we have no new leads.  
  
People keep telling me to move on, to accept that she's gone, but I can't. I know she's got a snowball's chance in Hell of ever making it home, but I have to keep hoping. "Faint heart never won fair lady-" well faint is the one thing my heart will never be.  
  
It isn't easy, slogging through the muck and mire of grief and doubt that gets piled outside my office door, but this is my life now and it will be until she comes home  
  
Sometimes I think it would be easier to cave to popular opinion and finally bury my heart. When that happens, I pull out a picture of La Superica and imagine us eating there together. That image alone is enough to get me through the toughest times.  
  
No one understands. They chide me about hiding in the past but I'm actually living in the future-our future. 


	6. Angst, angst, angst!

Mirage  
  
Love, honor, cherish. Words that not too long ago held such promise for the future. They went along with phrases like, "As long as you both shall live," painting a picture of an idyllic life. But now I know it was a mirage, one that vanished when another phrase was ignored: "Forsaking all others."  
  
Sydney. Strange how one soft sound whispered in half sleep could drown out our wedding vows, and yet it has. Her name shattered my vision of the future, and not even all the king's horses and all the king's men could put it back together again.  
  
Catch a Tiger  
  
"Eenie meenie minie mo." I chanted that children's rhyme thousands of times growing up, but I never faced a choice like this one.  
  
How can I choose between Lauren and Sydney? Wife, love, head, heart, present, past. Which is right and which is wrong?  
  
To choose one would be to give up some of my honor, but choosing the other would force me to give up part of myself. Should I stay with Rachel though my heart is Sydney's, or should I be honest with everyone and true to myself?  
  
"My mother told me to pick the very best one."  
  
There  
  
Sunset in front, stars behind, the two meeting above in a rich dusky blue.  
  
Sand underfoot, water stretching out before, continuously lapping at the land, begging for purchase.  
  
An arm at the waist, a hand on the side, melding the two shadows into one.  
  
A smile, a hint of laughter, a soft kiss, all giving the subtle picture of love.  
  
Happiness. Happiness was there.  
  
An alarm goes off, a hand slaps the button, but the phantom beach disappears. She longs to remain there, to stay with him, but There only exists in dreams. Reality is Here again with the morning.  
  
Triangle  
  
I'm back. I once was lost but now I'm found. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes I've come back from the dead, returned to a world that continued on without me.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I'm cast aside. The hole I've been filling no longer exists, the true fit has returned. Stop-gaps aren't needed anymore, there's no place for me in my world.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I'm torn. My heart was empty for so long, but now the dead walk and it beats again. Past meets future, and worlds collide.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Returned one, cast aside one, torn one.  
  
Past. Present. Future.  
  
Where do we go from here? 


End file.
